Is a larp wallet legal? Where playing rich turns into fraud, country by country

A wallet mockup is a picture, and the law looks at what the picture is used to get. The fraud laws of the US, the UK, France, Japan and Thailand side by side, what EU rules add for influencers, six situations from a labeled skit to fraud, and the line our own terms draw. Not legal advice.

Published: 23 October 2026

The short answer

You saw a larp wallet in a skit, or you are about to pay for one, and one question stops you: could this get me in trouble? The honest answer has two halves.

• The picture. None of the fraud laws on this page makes it an offense simply to use an app that draws a wallet screen, any more than prop money or a film set is an offense in itself. In the UK, though, possessing or making any article for use in fraud is a crime of its own, so intent matters even before anyone is fooled.
• The use. Every law here punishes the same move: a false representation used to obtain money, property or credit, or to cause someone a loss. A balance shown as real to a seller, a lender, an investor or an audience you sell to is exactly that.

Fraud laws, country by country

United States

The wire fraud statute is the one most online schemes meet, because a post, a message or a video call is a wire communication, and the text names "pictures" among the things transmitted. Two federal civil rules sit beside it. Section 5 of the FTC Act declares "unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce" unlawful. And in October 2021 the FTC put more than 1,100 businesses, investment coaches among them, on notice that false or misleading earnings claims could cost up to $43,792 per violation at the time, including claims that imply a result is typical when it is not. Each state also has its own fraud and consumer protection laws.

United Kingdom

The Fraud Act 2006 is unusually explicit about what counts. A representation is false if it is "untrue or misleading" and the person knows it is or might be. It "may be express or implied", so a screen captioned "my portfolio" can be one. The gain or loss intended only has to be in money or other property, and can be temporary. And it counts when made to "any system or device designed to receive, convey or respond to communications", such as a platform or an app.

European Union and France

There is no single EU fraud offense: fraud is a crime under each member state's own code. In France, whose law governs our own terms, escroquerie under article 313-1 of the Code penal carries up to five years. EU law adds two layers for people who earn from content. The European Commission considers influencers engaged in regular commercial activity to be traders under EU consumer law, bound to disclose advertising and not to mislead; its 2024 sweep of 576 influencers found that only one in five systematically disclosed advertising. And under the MiCA regulation, crypto-asset service providers must give information that is "fair, clear and not misleading", including in marketing.

Japan and Thailand

Japan's article 246 is short: a person who defrauds another of property, or who obtains an unlawful profit by the same means, faces up to 10 years. Thailand's section 341 defines cheating and fraud as dishonestly deceiving a person with a falsehood to obtain property, and section 343 makes the offense heavier when the falsehood is asserted to the public, which is what a post to followers is.

Is larping illegal? Is faking being rich illegal?

Larping as a hobby, live-action role-play, is an organized game, and none of these laws is aimed at it. Larping in the slang sense, pretending online, is not an offense in itself either: the statutes above all require the pretense to be used to obtain something or to cause a loss (when larping rich becomes fraud traces that line through real cases).

Two things can still go wrong without a fraud charge. Platforms remove content and accounts that mislead, and a rented-supercar post that ends in a course link is an earnings claim under FTC rules. The same goes for prop banknotes, which have their own rules (is prop money legal?).

Six situations, from prop to fraud

What a larp wallet is for

None of this means a wallet should never appear on screen. Skits, explainers, pitch decks and film scenes need one, and a real wallet is the wrong one to show: its address exposes a real balance and a real history to anyone who reads it.

A larp wallet, also called a crypto wallet app simulator, is an app that shows a believable crypto wallet screen built from the balances you type in, for videos, skits, pitch decks and demos. It holds no funds and touches no blockchain.

My Larp Wallet, which we make, is one such app, sold as a mockup tool and nothing else: it never asks for a key or a seed phrase, and every amount on it is typed in (what it does and cannot do). The legal question is never the app. It is what the person holding the phone says the screen is.

Where the line is

Section 3 of our terms of use draws the line the laws above draw, in plain words. You may not use the images to:

• make anyone believe you hold assets you do not hold;
• obtain a payment, an investment, a loan or any other advantage on the basis of a fictional financial position;
• stand as evidence, a statement, a certificate or any document presented as authentic;
• reproduce another publisher's branding in a way that confuses people about the product's origin.

A breach ends the license without a refund and may be reported to the competent authorities. Keep the "Mockup" label in the frame, say it out loud in a video, and if you are unsure whether a use crosses the line, ask a lawyer before you post, not after.

Sources

• 18 U.S. Code 1343, Fraud by wire, radio, or television (Cornell LII), 2026
• 18 U.S. Code 1014, Loan and credit applications generally (Cornell LII), 2026
• 17 CFR 240.10b-5, Employment of manipulative and deceptive devices (Cornell LII), 2026
• 15 U.S. Code 78ff, Penalties (Cornell LII), 2026
• 15 U.S. Code 45, Unfair methods of competition unlawful (Cornell LII), 2026
• Federal Trade Commission, FTC Puts Businesses on Notice that False Money-Making Claims Could Lead to Big Penalties, 2021
• Fraud Act 2006, section 2 (legislation.gov.uk), 2006
• Fraud Act 2006, sections 6 and 7 (legislation.gov.uk), 2006
• Legifrance, Code penal, article 313-1, 2026
• Japanese Law Translation, Penal Code (Act No. 45 of 1907), article 246, 2026
• Office of the Attorney General of Thailand, Penal Code, English translation for information purposes, 2022
• European Commission, Commission and consumer authorities look into business practices of influencers, 2023
• European Commission, Investigation finds that online influencers rarely disclose commercial content (IP/24/708), 2024
• ESMA interactive single rulebook, MiCA article 66, 2026

Questions

Is a larp wallet legal in the US?

Using an app that draws a wallet screen is not itself a federal crime. Federal fraud law targets the use: the wire fraud statute, 18 U.S.C. 1343, covers schemes to obtain money or property by false pretenses sent by wire, radio or television, including pictures, with up to 20 years in prison. Showing a mockup as a real balance to get a loan, a payment or an investment is the kind of use these laws reach. State laws apply too, and a lawyer in your state can say how.

Is larping illegal?

Larping, the hobby of live-action role-play, is an organized game, and none of the fraud laws on this page is aimed at it. Larping in the slang sense, pretending online, is not an offense in itself either. It becomes one when the pretense is used to obtain money or property, or to cause someone a loss, which is what fraud statutes punish.

Is it illegal to fake being rich on Instagram?

Posing in a rented car is not a crime in itself. It can become one when the fake wealth is used to get something: money from a follower, a loan, an investment, a sale. In the US, a business that uses a faked lifestyle to sell a money-making course also faces the FTC's rules on earnings claims. Platform rules on misleading content apply either way.

Is it illegal to fake a crypto balance?

Typing numbers into a mockup is not an offense under the laws described here. Presenting a faked balance as real to obtain something is a different matter: under the UK Fraud Act 2006, fraud by false representation carries up to 10 years, and the US wire fraud statute up to 20. Whether a given case is a crime depends on the facts and the country, so talk to a lawyer before relying on any general page, this one included.

Is a larp wallet legal in Japan?

Japan's Penal Code punishes fraud in Article 246: defrauding another person of property, or obtaining an unlawful profit by the same means, carries imprisonment of up to 10 years. A screen used as a prop is outside that; a screen used to deceive someone into handing over property is not. For a specific case, ask a lawyer qualified in Japan.